GAO, along with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and individual agencies, has identified skills gaps in numerous government-wide occupations. According to GAO's 2019 analysis of federal high-risk areas, skills gaps played a role in 17 of the 35 high-risk areas. Causes vary but these skills gaps often occur due to shortfalls in one or more talent management activities such as robust workfo

Federal agencies made limited use of special government employees (SGE) not serving on federal boards. As of December 2014, approximately 3 percent of SGEs (1,138 of 40,424) were working as experts or consultants and not serving on federal boards, according to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). Over a 10-year period (2005 to 2014), GAO found that agencies used an annual average of approximate

From 2006 through 2014, government-wide engagement levels--as measured by the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Employee Engagement Index (EEI)--increased to an estimated high of 67 percent in 2011 and then declined to an estimated 63 percent in 2014. This decline is attributable to several large agencies--including the Department of Defense--bringing down the government-wide average. The go

In brief, participants at the forum said that the most significant barrier keeping people with disabilities from the workplace is attitudinal. Attitudinal barriers can include bias against and low expectations for people with disabilities--a focus on disabilities rather than abilities. According to participants, there is a fundamental need to change the attitudes of hiring managers, supervisors,

Participants said that the most significant barrier keeping people with disabilities from the workplace is attitudinal, which can include bias and low expectations for people with disabilities. According to participants, there is a fundamental need to change the attitudes of hiring managers, supervisors, coworkers, and prospective employees, and that cultural change within the agencies is critica

Executive branch agencies are not required to and do not collect and maintain information on the post-government employment activities of former senior federal employees who represent foreign principals. Post-government employment restrictions prohibit former senior federal employees from engaging in certain activities, such as lobbying or other advocacy communications, for a specified period of

GAO reviewed 24 agencies that are covered by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 to analyze trends in hiring patterns. Generally, GAO did not find any discernable patterns. More than half of the 24 agencies GAO reviewed reported career hiring increases of 10 percent or more between July and December 2000 compared to the same period in 1999. A similar number of agencies, although not ne

GAO noted that: (1) most of the federal organizations responding to GAO's survey did not provide comprehensive data on resources used for union activities; (2) of the organizations that provided data, none provided GAO all of the data requested for all of the 8 fiscal years covered by GAO's survey; (3) in some cases, the data they provided covered only portions of fiscal years or were reported on

GAO found that: (1) authorizing legislation permits but does not require federal agencies to institute AWS programs; (2) agencies' headquarters promulgate general AWS policies that vary widely and generally do not permit the maximum allowable flexibility in work scheduling; (3) most agencies delegate to their operating units decisionmaking authority to institute AWS programs and decide which empl